This invention concerns a method and a device for fitting electronic components and others, more particularly for fitting connectors of the "press-fit" type in a printed circuit board, hereinafter referred to as "PCB".
Said press-fit connectors comprise a connector body in which a series of contact pins are fitted which project from the side or the bottom of the body.
The PCB is a relatively thin board of insulated material provided with a number of openings or holes which may or may not be connected with each other by means of a conducting material printed on the board.
The thickness of the PCB is not limited by the device, but by the characteristics of the connectors used.
Both the method and the device are suitable for handling male and female connectors, both in the straight and 90.degree. versions.
Until now, these connectors were mostly fitted to the PCB manually, so that the efficiency and quality of the connections made could not always be assured under optimum conditions. Furthermore, said operations demand a considerable amount of skill and precision, and also involve exposure to dangerous operations, including pressing in the connectors under a heavy press.
Devices already exist which automatically take electronic components from a feed channel and press them into a PCB.
For example, there are devices fitted with a rotating head, with gripper arms that pick up components one after another and push them into a PCB. Such devices are known from among others Belgian patent BE 903,742 in the name of the applicant, and from German patent DE 3,424,323.
These devices are however only suitable for inserting simple contact pins or small electronic components in a PCB; they are insufficient for pressing in several contact pins at once, as is necessary for connectors which are already fitted with the required contact pins, since it is necessary to provide an insertion force of from 6 to 20 kg per contact pin, so that connectors which can have 200 or more contact pins require a pressure of around four tons.
Further, in order to insert a series of contact pins for a connector, it is necessary to ensure that the ends of the contact pins are all exactly in line with each other, in order to prevent the pins being damaged when they are inserted into the corresponding holes in the PCB.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,165 describes a device equipped with a pickup head for picking up connectors and inserting them with their contact pins into the corresponding holes of a PCB. Said device has a means in the form of a double comb which correctly aligns the contact pins before they are inserted into the PCB. The device according to said invention is provided with means for picking up, aligning and inserting contact pins of a single type (long) of connector. Furthermore, the means for aligning the contacts are mechanically complicated and time-consuming, so that a continuous movement of the various operations is not possible.